TikTok boss invited to sit at position of honour at Trump inauguration

Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, testifies during the US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year. Photo / AFP

The chief executive of TikTok plans to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and has been invited to sit in a position of honour on the dais, where former presidents, family members and other important guests traditionally are seated, two people familiar with the plans said on Wednesday.

The invitation to the CEO, Shou Chew, went out from the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the inauguration on Monday. Chew will join Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk on the dais, along with other tech executives at the event, according to two people with knowledge of the planning.

TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, declined to comment.

Trump’s support for TikTok marks a stunning reversal from 2020, when he tried during his first term to block the app in the United States and force its sale to American companies. He warmed up to the company last year, particularly after he and his campaign surged in popularity on TikTok during last year’s election.

Trump has repeatedly talked about how content about him and his campaign has performed well on TikTok. His advisers saw value in engaging with the site and have said it helped him reach younger voters and those who tuned out mainstream media.

The Trump administration’s embrace of Chew is significant as the app teeters on the brink of death in the United States. Congress passed a law last year saying that ByteDance had to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company or face a ban in the United States as of Sunday, citing national security concerns.

TikTok has been gambling for the better part of a year that it can defeat the law in the courts. More recently, it has set its sights on aiming to reach another solution with the Trump administration to avoid an outright sale. The Supreme Court is set to rule on the law in the coming days.

Trump has vowed to save the app in the United States once he is inaugurated on Monday, though his options for doing so are limited. Legal experts have said that the area where Trump could most likely intervene would involve a part of the law that gives the president the authority to determine whether ByteDance has done enough to remove TikTok from Chinese control.

Trump publicly changed his stance on TikTok last year, soon after he met with Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor who owns a significant share of ByteDance. Trump has said they did not discuss the company. But Yass helped found the trading firm Susquehanna International Group and is one of the biggest supporters of the anti-tax lobbying group Club for Growth. It has hired people with ties to Trump, such as Kellyanne Conway, a former top adviser to the incoming president, and Republican adviser David Urban, to lobby for TikTok in Washington.

Trump met with TikTok executives on December 16 at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, according to an official familiar with the matter. Around the time of that meeting, TikTok officials told people in Trump’s orbit, and possibly the President-elect himself, that Trump should be the one to decide TikTok’s fate, according to two people with knowledge of the contacts between the two sides, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Shortly thereafter, Trump told reporters that he had a “warm spot” for TikTok and that he would look into the issue.

Written by: Maggie Haberman and Sapna Maheshwari

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